Viral Video: Blurring the Lines

Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is one of the biggest earworms of the summer, and the song’s video has earned some controversy for its portrayal of nearly-nude (or more-than-nearly in the NSFW unrated version) women dancing around with the fully-clothed male stars of the video.

Seattle’s “boylesque” troupe Mod Carousel took aim at the video with a cover version, one that quite nicely subverts the original by swapping the gender roles. The video has been tagged as a parody, but unlike most parodies which have tried to milk humor out of gender-switching, Mod Carousel’s cover digs a little deeper (and also unlike most online parody attempts, does so with decent production values and genuine musical talent). In their own words:

“It’s our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and do everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions.”

Daimon Eklund is a graduate student in the Master of Communication Digital Media program at the University of Washington. He has a background in print sports journalism and has also wrangled data for a Washington, D.C.-based website.